Australia shock All Blacks in Brisbane thriller

Australia withstood a furious late charge to upset New Zealand 23-18 in apulsating Bledisloe Cup match yesterday, piercing a fresh hole in theworld champions’ aura of invincibility. Reece Hodge’s monster, 53-metre penalty just before the final whistlesealed victory for the Wallabies, who celebrated just their second winin 19 games against their exalted neighbours.After trailing by one point at half-time, Australia fought back to claima physical victory over the All Blacks, scoring three tries to two in ahigh-quality match.New Zealand, who had already retained the Bledisloe Cup after winningthe opening two games during the Rugby Championship, dominated early andseemed certain to make it a clean sweep in Brisbane.But the Wallabies, wearing a specially designed jersey to honourAustralia’s indigenous players, dug deep in the second half to take thelead before holding off the visitors’ trademark late surge.“At half-time we said this game is going to come down to the last few minutes,” Australian coach Michael Cheika said.“You’re not going to defeat the world champions with 20 minutes to go — it just doesn’t happen.“We had some setbacks before that, but we also made some key plays.”The Wallabies had come agonisingly close to ending their run of defeatsagainst New Zealand when they conceded a late converted try to lose35-29 in Dunedin in August.But they stood firm to hand a second defeat of the season to the AllBlacks, who will be going for their third straight World Cup title intwo years’ time in Japan.Cheika said he wasn’t getting carried away with the win.“I’ve always got it in the back of my mind is our duty is to bring back the trophy, which we haven’t done,” he said.“As enjoyable as the win was, the disappointment of not winning the cup still resonates with me.”Although New Zealand have retained their Rugby Championship andBledisloe Cup titles this year, they also drew their three-Test serieswith the British and Irish Lions and haven’t exerted the same dominanceof recent years.As well as their last-gasp win over Australia in August, they trailedArgentina in the second half in New Plymouth and beat South Africa by asingle point this month in Cape Town.“They deserved the win,” All Blacks coach Steve Hansen conceded.“They worked hard and put us under pressure as well. Hopefully they kick on and have a great northern tour.”Slippery conditions in Brisbane meant both sides made plenty of errors, particularly early in the match.The home side were put under huge pressure early on as the visitors controlled the match with some superb tactical kicking.However, it was the Wallabies who struck first when New Zealand flyhalfLima Sopoaga had the ball knocked from his grasp straight into the armsof Australian winger Hodge, who raced 70 metres to score under theposts.The All Blacks hit back 15 minutes into the first half when an unmarkedWaisake Naholo crossed in the corner. Sopoaga converted from out wide tolevel the scores, then put the All Blacks ahead 10-7 with a 46-metrepenalty.The New Zealand flyhalf, starting in place of the injured BeaudenBarrett, kicked his second penalty when the otherwise outstandingWallabies flanker Jack Dempsey was caught offside in front of the posts.The All Blacks continued to look the more dangerous, but right onhalf-time Australia finally enjoyed some possession in the New Zealand22 and fullback Israel Folau ghosted through the defence to score hisseventh try in nine Test matches in Brisbane.Bernard Foley missed the conversion as the visitors went into the break13-12 up, and he also miscued a penalty attempt 10 minutes into thesecond half from 38 metres on the left.But six minutes later, Australian captain Michael Hooper turned down an easier penalty attempt and opted to kick for touch.The Wallabies spun the ball wide after a rolling maul sucked in the NewZealand defenders and Marika Koroibete crossed in the corner.Foley couldn’t convert but the Wallabies were well on top and Hodgeextended their lead to 20-13 with a penalty from almost 40 metres outwith 15 minutes remaining.But the All Blacks came storming back and after a superb Sonny BillWilliams offload, Reiko Ioane crossed out wide to make it 20-18 withnine minutes remaining.